About INSA

 "The Intelligence Community should expand its contacts with those outside the realm of intelligence by creating at least one not-for-profit sponsored research institute."  

-- The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, March 31, 2005

An Alliance of Expertise and Experience

For centuries, chess players have known that to outwit their opponent they must use their perspective over the chessboard to project five and ten moves ahead.  In much the same way, intelligence practitioners and national security professionals must not only anticipate the next attack-- they must also extend their vision past immediate dangers and forecast the next generation of threats.

To provide that over-the-board perspective, intelligence and national security practitioners established INSA; a nonprofit, non-partisan, professional association created to improve our nation's security.

INSA recognizes that technology and innovation are erasing geographic borders and upending traditional political alliances and security balances.  At the same time, policymakers are giving the intelligence and national security communities complicated and multi-factored new misisons.

Meeting this new national security challenge requires an outside perspective, divorced from the day-to-day obligations of bureaucratic management and emboldened with intellectual agility and hard-earned expertise.

With these issues in mind, and in light of the scarring events of 9/11, INSA's members have come together to create a unique forum in which the once-independent efforts of intelligence professionals, industry leaders and academic experts come together to gain that over-the-chessboard perspective.

Through symposiums, white papers, and debate, INSA's members are laying the intellectual foundation to build the Intelligence Community of the 21st Century. Through education, advocacy and unclassified programs, INSA is engaging the broader public to help find solutions and is working to create the workforce from which the leaders of the next generation will rise.